Pair to draw to
I went to the range last weekend. I shot all BP guns. A GPR 54 percussion, a GPR 54 flint, a Lyman 54 Plains Pistol and a Pedersoli Kentucky 54 filiter. That is a lot of guns for me to shoot at a time. I have my own rule, I usually only take one gun. Sometimes I will take a rifle and pistol of the same caliber.
I shot cast balls in all sets. They were cast with a Lee mold from old shot shells (12 ga #6)They were patched with hand cut linen (.017"), cut with a quarter for a pattern.
I shot the GPRs at 25 and 50 yards and the pistols at 50' and 25 yards. For the GPR percussion I used 90 gr 777 ffg. For the GPR flinter I used 45 gr ff Goex and 45 grains of 777 ffg. For the Plains Pistol I used 50 gr of 777 2f and for the flint pistol I used 35 gr ff Goex. I used ffff Goex in the pans of both flint weapons.
Both of the GPRs shot well and I was happy with the performance of the guns. The only problem that I had was that I used up some 15 year old percussion caps. I only got about 50% ignition from them. That problem went away when I went to new caps. I continue to be amazed by the GPR flint. I have taken between 35 and 50 shots with the flint that came with the used gun. The flint is getting eaten up and I keep repositioning it and it keeps going off.
For the percussion Plains Pistol 50 gr of 777 ff is dead on for point of aim and it is pretty snorty. I would rate it as somewhere between a 44 Special and a 44 Mag. The only change I would make on the Plains Pistol would be better sights. I am open to any suggestions. I think that the two groups for the Plains Pistol are a result of old eyes and if I want to get punky I would put some of the blame on crude sights.
For the Kentucky flint pistol I used 35 gr of ff Goex and ffff Goex in the pan. At 50' I missed with the first shot, I had two touching following that, then I had a called pulled shot, and the last shot was right in the first group. All five shots went off. I dropped 4 at 25 yards and then I broke a flint and it took me 4 tries to dump the last load.
The flint pistol has a real short throw on the hammer and I align the flint upside down and flush against the frizzen. That gives me the longest scratch on the frizzen to light it. I got 30 shots from the first flint. I have 5 shots from the second and it doesn't show any wear. I expected to get poorer performance from what I read on the posts on THR.
All in all I was happy with the session. I got great performance from all of the guns when I wasn't trying to save a nickel. The Lymans, all of them, seemed to be accurate and not flinch at high end loads. I have a lot to learn. Next I am going to take each gun out one at a time and spend a whole day really wringing it out.
Thanks for all the help that I got from all my brothers.
I welcome any suggestions.
Good luck and Happy trails
Higene
'When I was a kid I was so poor I had to play with rocks but now it's paying off.'
